Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank everyone for coming along this morning. I will reflect on what my colleague Mark Ruskell said. This is incredibly sobering. I think that I used the same word at our last meeting.

Donald Smith must have read my notes. The first quote that I wrote down was from Sir John Leighton. When he gave us evidence last year, he said of the role of the National Galleries of Scotland and other cultural organisations in Scotland:

“Every one of them is a mini ambassador for Scottish culture.”—[Official Report, Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, 29 September 2022; c 23.]

How do you see the current settlements impacting on the international standing of Scotland?

Closer to home, with regard to the work that HES does across Scotland, how can it be ensured that the reopening of buildings involves communities? My colleague Alasdair Allan talked about the timetable for that.

I would be interested to hear what Donald Smith has to say, as he initially raised the international side of the issue.

At the start of my question, I quoted what John Leighton said. You highlighted the fact that you can loan out pieces of work from Dumfries to Shetland, but you were concerned that that might be impacted.

Thank you.

That would be helpful, cabinet secretary. Thank you. The fact that local authorities have been given the easiest mechanism to get the funding out shows that there has been learning from the Covid pandemic.

I am interested to know how you are using North Ayrshire’s local islands plan, which has been given some support and has, I believe, been successful. I think that it is a 10-year plan. How is that approach being rolled out or proposed to other councils—for example, Argyll and Bute Council and Highland Council—that cover a mixture of the mainland and islands?

Thank you for that. Transformation is key. I have had a few conversations with the Nature Friendly Farming Network about what it is doing, which includes finding new ways of operating and providing support. There is an article in The Guardian today about woodland crofting and how people are looking at new ways of working.

I am interested in hearing how you are working with organisations such as the network and with, for example, Quality Meat Scotland on its monitor farm programme. One of those monitor farms is on Islay.

So, I am interested in your thoughts on how the Scottish Government, given the budget constraints, can look at transformation, with people changing the way in which they work, and how that might be spread across the country.

Thank you, cabinet secretary, for coming along today. As you pointed out in your opening statement, and as other colleagues have mentioned, the Scottish budget is under huge pressure because of Brexit, the cost of living and increased inflation, and that is impacting on how you can support fragile communities. A lot of farmers in Argyll and Bute speak to me about how that is impacting on their businesses, whether that is through increases in fuel charges for transportation, fertiliser costs and feed costs or through increases in other operating costs. Will you expand on the response that you gave to my colleague Alasdair Allan about how the Scottish Government is working with farmers and crofters to support them in this situation? Perhaps you can give examples of how the rural affairs and islands budget is doing that as business costs increase.

I am not terribly sure that I need to ask my question, given the response that the cabinet secretary has just given to Alasdair Allan. I was specifically going to ask what the financial transactions have been spent on this year and why they have been removed next year.

I want to expand on Beatrice Wishart’s question. Prior to the Christmas recess, in the debate in the chamber on fishing, I mentioned that the Clyde Fishermen’s Trust has prepared a vision for the Clyde fishery, which includes a number of proposals, some of which relate to harbour infrastructure, modernising vessels to make them more carbon efficient and more localised fish processing. I would like to hear your thoughts on that. Do you have any specific examples, further to the ones that you have given Ms Wishart?

Not specifically. I can supplement Ariane’s question. Thank you.

I will briefly touch on what Rachael Hamilton and Ariane Burgess talked about. I appreciate that this does not necessarily fall into your portfolio, cabinet secretary, but, in Kintyre, work is on-going on a pilot that looks at slurry spreading, capacity, growth and the impact of run-off. That is an example of where farmers want to find solutions. As George Burgess said, the cheapest fertiliser is what you do not have to pay for. Farmers want to understand the best use of what they create through their livestock. I just wanted to add that in so that you were across it.